Thirty years after the original recording, Bob Geldof has revived Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? – in order to raise money for the West African countries affected by Ebola. It is easy to be cynical about such “celebrity activism”, dismissed by some as patronising and pointless – and it is hard to tell how much of the money given actually reaches its intended recipients. But many millions, which would otherwise have been spent elsewhere, has been raised by previous campaigns, and these men and women are doing something that they did not have to do. So, let’s try and avoid thinking the worst: they could just be doing something good, and doing it with good motives.
At the same time, there is massive irony in the song’s refrain: “Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?” It suggests that, while the people of West Africa may not know, we do, and we’re the ones who will show them what Christmas really means. In reality, of course, “they do know it’s Christmas time in Africa because huge swaths of that vast continent are Christian” (Bim Adewunmi, writing in The Guardian). As a continent, Africa is far more Christian than Europe is and has a much better idea what Christmas is really all about. Indeed, it is tempting to tweak the title, as some of the other lyrics have been tweaked, and turn the question on ourselves: “Do we know it’s Christmas?” Do we know that “a Saviour has been born to [us]; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11, NIV).